Kanye West- Ye: Album Review

In 2013 Kanye West dropped a daring project in Yeezus, as the man himself proclaimed he was more than a man, he was a God. Fast forward to present day and to Kanye’s newest album, Ye. Kanye does a 180 as he details his fall from grace and that he is a man with faults, just like every human. He details those faults in the most gripping of ways.

Where do we even start here? Perfect album length, perfect number of features that all blend well and add to the album. That’s already two sets of perfection and I haven’t even got onto each track, get ready.

Track one, I Thought About Killing You, is my personal favourite on the album. Kanye begins in a spoken word detailing some of his darkest thoughts, committing murder and killing himself. When Ye begins rapping it brings it back to his old school brilliance, none of this poop scoop shtick, no gimmicks just bars. There’s an incredible flow and the beat gradually gets more aggressive and the bars get more intense. Kanye throws shade and just begins to scratch the surface of his opioid addiction, something that’s an occurring theme throughout the album.

Addiction is the main theme of track two, Yikes. Kanye mentions his the highs he’s had and failed trips. The production is eerie to match the dark lyricism. The outro of the song give us a Yeezus style scream as Kanye mentions that his bipolar is not a problem, but rather his superpower.

It’s from this point onward that the features flow into the album. The star studded lineup includes PartyNextDoor, Jeremih, Ty Dolla Sign, Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson and Nicki Minaj, all of whom provide a little extra something to each of the remaining tracks on the album. Valee and Ty Dolla hop on track three to deliver a chilling vocal on the hooks as Kanye spits venom on the verses.

PartyNextDoor, Jeremih and Ty Dolla Sign all help out on track four, Wouldn’t Leave. Kanye brings up his controversial lyrics about slavery in this track stating that he can say much more outlandish things.It’s a true soulful masterpiece. Kanye manages to give us solid bars over a simple and melodic beat. It’s reminiscent of a Chance the Rapper song in it’s gospel rap genre. Whether it’s out and out bars over a funky beat or dropping dimes over some soul chops, Kanye can do it all.

The soul anthems continue to flow through as Charlie Wilson and Kid Cudi give us a top quality hook for No Mistakes. It’s possible that Ye takes shot’s at Drake in this track to carry on the ever brewing feud between Drizzy and GOOD Music. Ghost Town features Kid Cudi once more, perhaps a preview of what we’ll see for the Kids See Ghost debut in a weeks time. It’s a song of love and heartache. Perhaps the only critique at this point is that there could be a little extra Yeezy on some of these tracks, very feature heavy.

Kanye ends his 7 track masterpiece with Violent Crimes. Kanye details his shift in opinion since the birth of his daughters. There’s an appropriate outro from Nicki Minaj which signals the end of the album. No mentions of poop di scoop.

No mentions of Donald Trump. This is Kanye West at his unadulterated best, and I have no idea why anyone thought it’d be any different. It’s clear that it’s Ye season once again. He’s had a turbulent few years but he’s back at his phenomenal best and he’s delivered one of the very best albums of the year for sure. The greatest artist of our generation with what I’m sure will be another number 1 album and another classic.